>> kathleen sebelius on the hot seat, testifying this morning at a congressional hearing. >> there has not been a mass casualty here in the u.s. since 2001. that's not by luck. >> the head of the n.s.a. defiantly defending the spy agency. the general says gathering intelligence around the world is critical and helps to keep america safe from terrorists. >> the war raging in syria claiming some surprising new victims. children are being diagnosed with polio because they don't have access to adequate health care. >> it is reported that at

8:58 p.m., a huge object believing to be a meteor right fell on a farm. >> 75 years ago, martians innovated the planet or people listening to the radio thought they did. a look back at the war of the world broadcast that caused widespread panic across the country. >> good morning. welcome to aljazeera america. i'm stephanie sy. >> good to have you with us on this wednesday. two hours from now, the health and human services secretary will testify. >> many are saying she should be fired. >> kathleen see bellous will be asked to explain the failure of the health care website. we have more on what she might

say today. >> good morning. you know, kathleen sebelius probably not going to get a warm and fuzzy eception. she has become a focal point of criticism not only for the failing health care website, but for obamacare itself. one of her top two lieutenants provided a warmup act. >> i want to apologize to you that the website has not worked as well as it should. >> a member of the obama administration apologize for the website that has been plagued by problems since launching last month. testifying tuesday, marlin tavenner did not give many reason for website issues. she did not give specific numbers and how many people have actually signed up for insurance. those facts and figures are expected to come in another hearing, when her boss, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius testifies later this morning.

that hearing could get heated, since some republicans have been calling for her to be fired. >> i don't think anyone would deny this fact on either side of the political aisle. these past 29 days have been nothing short of a disaster. >> as republicans attack the problem-plagued website as representative of larger troubles with the affordable care act. >> the problem with obamacare isn't just the website, it's the whole law. >> democrats fiercely defend the law and site. >> everybody needs to chill out, because it is going to work. >> we are working around the clock to deliver the shopping experience that you deserve. >> according to prepared testimony released by the white house, secretary see bellous will admit to some of the problems saying: >> she is expected to blame the website contractors saying they have not met expectations.

last week in another congressional hearing, the lead contractors said they only had two weeks in september to do end to end testing of the system, something they say should have taken months. the white house is still promising a quick fix. >> by the end of november, the experience on the site will be smooth for the vast majority of users. >> the obama administration points out there are other ways to sign up. >> they can use the call center, paper applications, then we have in-person assistance available in each state. >> president obama is scheduled to be in boston today. he's hoping to draw parallels to massachusetts's landmark 2006 health care law that also had a pretty slow rollout. that health care law was signed by his one time political rival, former governor mitt romney. the white house has said mr. obamas main message today will be to be patient. >> ok. we'll see if americans listen to that. >> let's bring in randall pinkton joining us from washing

top. is there any indication how the secretary will handle the questions today if it turns hostile? >> we expect that it will be turning hostile. that's a fairly good certainty. she's expected to give more of an explanation about what is being done, the specifics about the plan, the hiring of the technical experts, who are trying to fix the problems with the website. of course, she will probably also apologize, but we are expecting that secretary see bellous will be much more defensive in her responses, rather than yesterday. yesterday was the apology, today, what they're doing to fix it. >> we're hearing a lot in the last few days about americans receiving notices that they will not be renewed next year for their health care insurance. can we expect specifics today from secretary sebelius? >> not quite sure how many specifics we're going to get beyond yesterday. they're trying to explain the difference between president obama saying if you have health insurance, you'll be ail to keep it. in fact, some people are being

thrown off the roles. they will explain that there was some fine print there, which basically meant if your health insurance plan changed after the health care law took effect, then it was possible that you would not be able to continue to keep that, but if it was the same before the health care law took effect, then you can keep it. obviously, it's very confusing and it's not exactly in line with what the president said. that's a huge contribution that the white house and see bellous are going to have a hard time explaining. >> we'll certainly see what comes out of today's hearing. randall pinkton joining us from washington, thank you. >> insurance companies have begun sending notices to hundreds of thousands of americans informing them them not be able to continue with their policies. we have a closer look. >> for several years, president obama has said repeatedly that anyone who likes their existing

health care coverage can keep it, but insurance companies are required to make adjustments to comply with the new federal health care law. that means hundreds of thousands of policy holders are being forced to cancel their plans unless they held them before the affordable care act was passed in march of 2010. starting next year, insurance companies must meet certain minimum standards called essential health benefits. there are 10 of them and they include things like doctor's visits, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health and prescription drugs. any plan that does not include these can no longer be offered. when insurance companies are sending cancellation letters to those whose coverage lack these required benefits, the people most affected are those who already buy insurance by themselves, like freelance workers and independent contractors. in all, nearly 14 million

americans currently buy insurance this way. nearly everybody else who gets insurance through their employers or medicare already have plans that immediate the standards. according to the kaiser foundation, which has been studying this for years, about half of those who get these cancellation notices will ultimately pay less than they're paying now. the other half will actually have to pay more. for example, one woman in california is currently paying just $98 a month. the cheapest plan she could find under the new two is $238 a month. some people say they should not be forced to pay for things in their plan that they don't want or need. the white house insists it's been clear that some americans were going to pay more on the front end in order to bring total health care costs down for everybody else over the long term. >> erika. thank you. aljazeera will bring you extended life coverage of

kathleen sebelius's testimony. >> the head of the national security agency says reports of widespread phone tapping overseas are not true. meanwhile, a proposed bill in congress would sale back some of the n.a.a.'s powers. >> confident and almost defiant, the nation's top spy chiefs made no apologies, vigorously defending the job they do to keep america and its allies safe. >> there has not been a mass casualty here in the u.s. since 2001. that's not by luck. they didn't stop hating us. they didn't say that they were going to just forget this. they continued to try. >> the work of the n.s.a. is under fire, because of revelations by former n.s.a. analyst edward snowden. documents he leaked revealed the

n.s.a. has been collecting phone calls and text messages of millions of american citizens. the author of the patriot act has proposed a new law called the freedom act aimed at ending the sweeping phone tapping program. the act would stop drag net collection of phone calls of american citizens, place stronger restrictions on who is targeted and appoint a special advocate to the super secret fisa courts to protect privacy rights. national security director told the committee the content of phone calls remain secret, in a virtual lock box unless there is a link to possible terrorism and that he says is rare. >> they would only be looked at when we had reasonable and articulatable suspicion that we had connection to a foreign or al-qaeda terrorists group and look into that box. in 2012, we had 288 such

selectors that we could go and look into that. that's it. of the billions of records, only 288. >> at the hearing, there was relatively little discussion about the allegations that america had spied on its allies, but at the white house was a hot topic. jay carney said president obama assured angela merkel there is not and will not be any spying on her. this was the reaction when he was asked about leaders of france and japan. >> i just don't have anything more specific about specific alleged operations or conversations the president may or may not have had with foreign leaders. >> the freedom act proposes ending bulk collection of records if not directly linked to terrorism, can did he say stein intelligence or suspected foreign agents. >> one major point was made to surveillance policies, saying everybody else is doing it too. they claim some of the information came from nato allies, not u.s. spying.

greece has admitted to spying on the u.s. and others in the 1990's at the hearing. james clapper made it clear the u.s. is in good company. >> you believe that the allies have conducted or at any time any type of espionage activity against the united states of america, our intelligence service leaders or otherwise? >> absolutely. >> he said the white house was aware the n.s.a. oversees eavesdropping all along, but may not have known specifics. >> russian leaders denying reports of spying on overseas leaders. they are accused of passing out bugged gift bags at last months g-20 summit. the report by two italian newspapers say delegates were given memory sticks and phone chargers equipped with spyware. it's unclear how many leaders received the bags or used the free bees. >> edward snowden can earn a ticket out of russia if he

testifies about spying. germany are investigating reports the u.s. tapped their chancellors phone. snowden is wanted in the u.s. for revealing n.s.a. secrets. german lawmakers would grant him asylum if he agrees to be their star witness. >> the war in syria is blamed for an outbreak of polio. the u.n. confirms 10 children now have the disease. polio had not been seen in syria in 14 years, but health officials say vaccinations have dropped sharply since the conflict began. >> the u.n. arab league met this morning in syria with president assad. we go live to beirut. good morning to you. what are the conditions for the peace talks?

>> the syrian government has been saying that they would go to geneva if in deed that conference happens, but under the condition that everything is discussed among syrians and it's up to the syrian people to decide about their future, to choose which leader they want to take them through, and choose what kind of government they want in the future. he also sort of underlined that syria would not accept any kind of foreign interference in these talks. that seems to be a bit difficult to understand, since the geneva two conference if it would happen would be an international conference in the sense that the united states and russia would be there. iran has already signaled that if invited, it would attend. lebanon says that as a neighboring country with the burden of the refugees it has here, it should be also attending that conference, so

it's not very clear how that would happen. >> national council remains divided about the talks here. where does the opposition stand now? >> the opposition still hasn't changed its stance. a few days ago, we heard from both the syrian national coalition that said it hadn't decided yet whether it would go to geneva or not. we heard a very stern warning from a group of 19 rebel factions, some very powerful rebel factions, a part of that group who have clearly stated they refuse the conference if it goes against the aims of the syrian revolution and that they would consider a traitor anyone who sat at that table. we still haven't heard what is the final decision. we know they should be meeting in a few days, and that's when we would know whether they would accept or not to go in the end.

>> can you tell us about the circumstances surrounding the sacking of the syrian deputy prime minister? >> that dropped on the syrian news agency by tuesday afternoon. what the statement said is that he was dismissed from his job, because he was absent from work without permission, and also and probably that's the heart of the matter, that he carried out meetings and activities without prior consent from the government. now, what happened is that cadri was in geneva and held talks there with robert rhettford and that is what angered the government. >> thank you. coming up in our next hour, we'll learn more about the polio problem with a spokesperson for

unicef. >> rain has caused flooding in the midwest. there is more ahead. >> yesterday's to get in places like missouri where we are watching rain at this very hour were easily two or three inches in a lot of cases. the broad picture is this system pulling out of the rackies that's been creating all the rain, interacting with more areas of gulf moisture. that will be in play today. it is going to be another wet one. we can see a lot of moisture at least in terms of clouds. later in the day, when we get a little bit of heating afternoon and evening hours, not only rain, but potential for storms. we can see possible a little winter weather in south dakota, but the southern edge, missouri and southward we're seeing the possible hazards. over the next couple of days, the rain shifts towards the great lakes, but the southern end is where we could see the

heaviest rain, arkansas into texas,ical two or three inches of rain and isolated spots even more. that's our flood risk through the course of the day. we've had showers moving in, so northeast texas, seeing some of that right now. the ground is already saturated from yesterday, so new rain is going to create those possible flash flood concerns and we already have some flood warnings up here or watches for that potential here, as well. this system is on the move and it's got a lot of warm air ahead of it. we'll talk about what is next for this coming up in the next half hour. >> meteorologist nicole mitchell. >> still ahead on aljazeera america this morning, a restrictive oklahoma abortion law has been struck down. >> why the case is headed to the supreme court for a second time. >> apple creator steve jobs made history in this house. >> what's now being done to cement that contribution. there's the house right there, in american culture. >> there seems to be no stopping

the bulls on wall street. why the stock market could set new record highs again today.

>> welcome back. another state's attempt to limit abortions might fail its final legal test. oklahoma's top court ruled two years ago that a restrictive abortion law was unconstitutional. they say now it includes all drug induced abortions. a clarification was made for the supreme court and federal justices are unlikely to back the law. a texas abortion law was struck down earlier this week. >> the f.c.c. has a new leader. the senate confirmed tom wheeler to serve as chairman. the seat had been empty for months. his appointment was stalled by senator ted cruz. the texas senator wanted to be sure he did not tighten the rule for ads. >> the federal reserve makes a big announcement today. >> we have the latest headlines.

>> the two day meeting is over and now everyone's going to watch the fed. the fed happen pumping money into the economy and today we hear policy makers will finally begin pulling back, which would lead to higher interest rates. last month, the fed shocked wall street announcing no change to a stimulus program. markets rose sharply because investors realize money would stay cheap. no surprises are expected today. everyone beliefs the central bank will continue buying $85 billion a month in bonds to keep interest rates down. >> what we've seen is tepid economic data. the economy isn't getting rolling. the federal reserve wants to see substantial improvement in the labor market before rolling back policies. we just went through the government shut down and debt ceiling crisis. the idea that they're going to withdraw stimulus at this meeting or the next is not too likely. >> the fed released a statement.

stick with aljazeera america for the kind of analysis you just can't get anywhere else. there's also more economic data coming out this morning. it's important, today we get a snapshot of the job market. the payroll company will issue its monthly private sector report, a taste of what we will hear next week about the jobs picture. today the consumer price index will be released. with so much key information coming out today, stock futures higher at this hour. the markets opened at an all time high across the board. the dow and s&p set new records.

's overseas, european stocks are mostly higher, traders there hoping the fed keeps stimulating the economy. asia, nikkei shot up 1%, hong kong surged 2% and shanghai up 1.5%. it's back, eas eastman kodak. it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012, now trying to come back focusing on commercial and packaging printing. >> the wall street journal reports that sac capital advisers will likely plead guilty to securities fraud, run by robert cohen. the timing of the settlement isn't yet set, but could come by the end of the week. >> meanwhile, reports say

settlement talks between j.p. morgan and justice department could be troubled. j.p. morgan is reportedly looking to shield itself from criminal investigations. so far, the justice department is essentially saying no. >> what happened there? a lot of people thought that was a done deal. >> when we look at criminal liability, even though the bank has set aside money for this case, the criminal side, those debts could be crippling if applied to the bank. j.p. morgan said it was doing the government a favor by buying washington mutual and bear stearns. they believe the fdic, the same agency to secures your checking account, could pay. >> that does understand at up. >> when washington mutual

failed, the fdic took it over. that agency turned around and sold asset to say j.p. morgan under the agreement that it signed, it says its shielded from criminal liabilities. >> that's one we'll to have continue to follow. thank you. >> steve jobs changed the way we communicate with apple products. do you still use siri? >> she never answers me. >> he was behind the mack computers, ipod and ipad. >> the silicon valley home, that's it, where he grew up is now a historic site. the garage there is where jobs and steve built some of the first apple computers. >> the house is still owned by. >> his sister. >> who had nothing to do with the designation. it's independent. >> and now can't renovate. >> can't make any changes without the approval of the

board. >> he built 100 of the original apple computers in that garage. do you know how much those computers go for now? >> i think originally for $500. don't ask me how i know this. >> $500? >> $500 initially, and went for $213,000. >> i remember those little botches. >> some called them heroes in the fight against occupation. >> others call them killers. the emotional release of prisoners who have spent two decades behind bars and how their freedom could bring the israelis and palestinians closer to peace. >> a lifetime ban for dopers. >> this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man. >> so many people were spooked. >> 75 years later, a look back at words that sparked chaos and changed broadcasting history. ross. >> good morning, thomas, lebron

james and heat and the opening night for the nba, in just a bit.

(vo) al jazeera america we understand that every news story begins and ends with people. >> the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents. (vo) we pursue that story beyond the headline, past the spokesperson, to the streets. >> thousands of riot police deployed across the capitol. (vo) we put all of our global resources behind every story. >> it is a scene of utter devastation. (vo) and follow it no matter where it leads, all the way to you. al jazeera america. take a new look at news. on inside story, we bring together unexpected voices

closest to the story, invite hard-hitting debate and desenting views and always explore issues relevant to you. >> welcome back to aljazeera marrying. i'm stephanie sy. >> i'm thomas drayden. health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius will appear at a congressional hearing. >> it could be contentious. several republicans are calling for her to step down because of the website's many problems. appearing tuesday before the same committee, medicare chief marlin tavenner offered and apology to users of healthcare.gov. >> to the millions of americans,

i want to apologize that the website has not worked as well as it should. >> that apology is the first prom a high-ranking official in the obama administration. we may hear something similar from sebelius. she said the holt care website has not lived up to the expectations of the american people. >> joining us to discuss is jack cooper, assistant professor of. health in economics at yale university, joining us from new haven, connecticut. mr. cooper, good to have you with us. >> good morning. >> what if these problems can't be solved. is there a great risk of delaying or not completely solving health care? >> i think these will be solved. i think the important thing is to point out is there's a huge precedent to this. if we look back at the rollout of medicare part d, that rollout took three weeks. some had their coverage accidental canceled.

i think this isn't quite as crazy. it's terrible, not good for the law or for the folks who supported the affordable care act, but not quite as cataclysmic as suggested. >> competition, driving down the prices, you've seen the reports that of surfaced, saying 2 million americans who currently have health insurance won't be able to renew their current plan come next year. >> i think that's a great point and worded looking at who these 2 million are. first, let's say that is a very small portion of the population, well under 5%. one of the things the affordable care act did was for folks purchasing insurance on the own, we regulated the market saying there are minimum standards. it can't treat being a woman as being a preexisting condition. we can't have lifetime caps on coverage. there were a small number of policies out that that weren't up to stuff and these are

getting canceled. they're getting canceled by the way, by the insurance companies, these are business decisions. most of these folks are going to get better, less expensive care on the insurance exchanges. now is that totally consistent with what the president said? >> no, but for the folks who are getting better care at a lower price, i think that's a pretty good deal. >> what about the many americans who do have to pay more? getting better coverage certainly is great, but every dollar counts for so many americans who can't afford $25 more in coverage. >> that's where these subsidies kick in. for a lot of folks, the premiums might be higher, but when you factor in the ta tax write offs, most are going to be paying less. >> let's talk about the website debacle here. it may have turned off a lot of young people, healthy, single people, the exact group the obama administration was hoping to target. why is it such an issue? >> that is the issue.

what we want to see in these markets is getting as many people enrolled as possible. just as you suggested, we essentially want the young folks to share the risk with the old folks. i think the challenge here is that the folks are going to oh sign up are those who are going to need it the most. again, this is not without precedent. when i first bought my iphone, you needed to wrap it in a rubber band gizmo to stop it from dropping calls if you held it the wrong way. they never intended to run these in 36 states. they're doing it because there are a host of governors out there who said we don't want to implement the laws where we live. is it surprising? not particularly. this is something where we can see it improve. the funniest part, they're bringing in the same company that mitt romney worked for to come in and fix the website up. i think what they're suggesting is really by december 1, we're

going to see this website back on line. >> politics aside, many americans just want a simple, workable website. thanks for joining us. >> no apologies from the nation's top spy chief over the n.s.a.'s surveillance program. the head of the agency denied reports of widespread phone tapping of foreign citizens. lawmakers are proposing a bill to scale back some of the n.s.a.'s powers. we have reports. >> the house intelligence committee plays a key role in overseeing the secret activities of the n.s.a. >> the only scandalous thing are the attacks made upon you. >> on tuesday, they answered critics. on the bugging of world leaders, james clapper insisted he was only following orders, however broad, to give the president the best information possible on his foreign counter parts. >> as long as i've been in the

intelligence business, 50 years, leadership intentions, in whatever form that's expressed is kind of a basic tenant of what we are to collect and analyze. >> on recent allegations that the united states was collecting millions of phone records in front and spain, the head of the n.s.a. offered this defense. >> this is not information that we collected on european citizens. it represents information that we and our nato allies have collected in defense of our countries and in support of military operations. >> for the last several months, documents the whistle blower edward snowden leaked showed a global drag net beyond france and spain and that has failed to become a major issue in washington. the bugging of angela merkel's phone has gotten attention. this focus worries a visiting

delllation of parliament arians investigating the scale of the program. >> it was not just on leaders, but citizens. >> with both james clapper and alexander discussing collecting the phone call data of u.s. citizens. >> joining us now to analyze the effectiveness of the n.s.a. program is eight are a bam wagner. he specializes in national security, cyber security and intelligence. thanks for joining us this morning. >> my pleasure, stephanie, thank you very much. >> thanks. >> the n.s.a. director general alexander maintains everything the n.s.a. is doing is in the interest of national security. do we have proof of that? >> that's the business they're in. they, you know, under the original 1947 national security act, we enabled our intelligence

services to do activities, including things like espionage and collection of intelligence in support of national security and defense, and that is their exclusive mission, and the most -- well the executive order actually signed by president reagan which defines the roles, and missions of all the intelligence agencies makes it perfectly clear what their mission is. that's exactly what they do. >> and what their authority is. >> let's listen to what some of what general alexander had to say yesterday. >> there ma not been a mass casualty here in the u.s. since 2001. that's not by luck. they didn't stop hating us. they didn't say that they were going to just forget this. they continued to try. >> he seems almost upset by these leaks. to what extent do you think u.s.

intelligence has been weakened out all? >> obviously there's been enormous dabbling. this is an activity, intelligence activities, normally con ducked in secret, in fact highly secret and by making clear some of our capabilities and some of what we've done causes people on the other side to not communicate the way they normally would communicate, to take other actions, and it, you know, it provides them with ammunition in a war against us. clearly, there's damage, and it's not clear how well we'll ever recover from this, but probably we will regain the ability to do a lot of what we need to do. >> what about tapping the phones of leaders of our allied countries, does that cross a line and condition that be defended in the name of national security or as no argue, is it possibly the u.s. trying to gain economic advantage over countries like germany. >> i think as director clapper said yesterday, we look at lots

and lots of communications and when we're looking at the communications for example of foreign leaders, we're looking at things like intentions, what are they really thinking and we're trying to build information for our president, the people that surround him and have to negotiate and deal with these things. we're trying to give him the best information possible. >> you don't think it crosses a line. >> it has never crossed a line. we've been engaged in this work since world war i with the short exception of 1929 with secretary of state simpson said don't read each other's mails and we stopped for a brief period of tile. this is a brief activity that's been going on for close to a century now. unfortunately, at this point in time, it's gotten a great deal of intention. it's not only the united states. every country with an intelligence service engages in these types of activities, but not always in the public view.

>> thanks very much. >> you're welcome. >> once again, the u.s. condemns the five decades old embargo against cuba. 188 countries in the general assembly denounced the sanctions in a some polak vote. three countries with spain and israel opposing it. it was started in 1960 after fidel government nationalized u.s. owned properties. it has cost the nation over $1 trillion. the u.n. has taken this vote annually for years. >> afghan officials will travel to pakistan to meet with the taliban's former second in command. the break through came in a summit in london with leaders of pakistan, afghanistan and u.k. mululudar was arrested three years ago in pakistan. he was freed last month, but is reportedly under house arrest. >> four french hostages are free after three years of captivity. they were kidnapped by al-qaeda

while working at a french nuclear company. the french defense minister said they did not pay ransom for launch a military assault. it is still unclear by the men were reds. the french government is welcoming them home. >> peace talks are back on the table between israel and palestinian leaders. the second of four groups of prisoners have been released by israel. aljazeera was there for the emotional day. >> the celebrations started early. family and friends gathered outside the presidential headquarters to await their return. >> i'm thrilled. the world is too small for my joy. i'm finally going to hug my son. >> in the moment they've all waited for, the former prisoners emerged as free men. the palestinian president welcomed them back home and promised people no prisoner would be left behind. >> there will be no final agreement until all our prisoners are freed from israeli jails.

>> all of these men spent at least 20 years behind bars and all of them convicted of killing israeli citizens. there's been outrage in israeli for this moment. they believe they should remain in jail for life. 21 were released in the west bank and five others returned to gaza. >> i miss my mother most. i can't describe what it feels like to be free. >> then it was all over. everyone couldn't wait to finally get back home. the party was just starting. two prisoners are welcomed back here. they spent 21 years in prison. they were sentenced to life and their families say they never thought they'd live to see this day. aljazeera in the occupied west bank. >> secretary of state john kerry negotiated the release of those prisoners. >> good news for those in the south in the weather forecast,

things are warming up. >> good morning. >> briefly for the east coast, as well, but part of a weather system that is eventually going to cause problems, we're going to have to take the good with the bad. across the country, you can see the dividing line. we have the system that's been moving in to the midsection of the country, creating a lot of rain. ahead of that, we had a southerly flow. starting to get into the 60's, up and down the east coast and northeast. here's what we had as we get into tomorrow. remember those temperatures i just showed. there's a warm flow off the gulf. the front culls in. behind that, the temperatures will be falling. that means thursday, these temperatures surge, as well. as we look at all of that into tomorrow's highs, temperatures go up. washington, d.c. likely to get into the 70's, where as on the backside of the front, minneapolis drops down to 50 degrees. what we're also seeing is the wet weather in the midsection of the country. places like texas this morning,

getting some of that after a very rainy day yesterday. when we see more moisture into the afternoon, a chance for storms, we're going to see northern parts of the midwest all the way down into texas with that heavy rain. the core of that missouri into texas is where we have our best chance for some strong storms today, wind and hail the primary threat. you can't entirely rule out a tornado. we'll talk more about that coming up in the next half hour. back to you guys. >> thanks to meteorologist nicole mitchell. >> new research adds fire to the doping debate. athletes who take steroids may benefit for years, maybe a decade after they top. this is why athletes who use steroids should be banned for life. >> on the topic of sports, ross shimabuku is here. >> the number season is underway. >> time to hoop it up. the party was in south beach last night. lebron james and miami heat unveiled another champion banner while chicago's derrick rose was

hoping to crash the party in his much anticipated return. the two time defending champ had a ring start to the season. over 10-carats of diamonds, sort of like stephanie's ring. derrick rose who missed last season was explosive, but obviously rusty, committing five turnovers. the heat off to a slow start, probably counting the diamonds in each ring, stephanie. lebron baptizes the rockne, tony snell. heat despite all the distractions would go on to win it by a 12 pack, 107-95. >> once the banner went up and we left the floor, we left last year, you know, we left the floor. we started our journey toward the season. >> you want to get better. you don't take too much from it. you know, we will watch film, see the things we did well and didn't do so well, especially in

the second half. it's a building process, and you don't base your season off the first game or one game. we've got room for improvement. >> in la la land, hooping it up against the lakers minus kobe bryant. jordan sees home two of his 17 points. lakers going show time. henry, a former first round pick out of kansas filling in for kobe bryant. griffin slammed home 19 points. i wish i could jump that high. a lot of so-called experts are picking the clippers to win the conference, but the lakers not buying into the hype. their bench players combined for 76 points and played the entire fourth quarter. lakers win the battle of l.a. 116-103. >> did you hear about the ticket prices for game six of the world

series tonight? they have skyrocketed, averaging $2,000 a pop. the last time the red sox clinched the championship at home, woodrow wilson was our president, while people listened to the radio, no such thing at television. the year 1918 when the red sox played the chicago cubs. >> no one under the age of 95 has seen the scene that could unfold here at boston's fenway park in game six of the world series. the red sox have a chance to clinch a world series title here at fenway park for the first time since 1918, in a game that featured a prenew york yankees bibe ruth. they're playing at home. they have a 58-23 record here during the regular season, best in the american league, and they're getting a reinforcement back in the lineup, first baseman mike napoli. >> that is into center field,

down to the wall. one run scores. here comes pedroia. here comes ortiz. 3-0 boston in the first. >> of course, what st. louis has is michael waka, 4-0 with an e.r.a. of 1.00. certainly he has been a stopper for the cardinals. they hope he can reproduce that kind of effort wednesday night in game six of the 2013 world series. >> from boston, john henry smith, aljazeera. >> boston won the world series in 2004 and 2007, but both of those came on the road. >> they were not at fenway park, which puts a lot of pressure on the sox. >> they have two nights to do it, tonight and tomorrow night.

>> it was a radio broadcast that frightened millions of americans. >> an adaptation of the novel the war of the worlds complete with fake bulletins of an alien invasion. >> martian cylinders are falling all over the country, one in buffalo, one in chicago, st. louis. >> how one town is keeping the infamous orson wells broadcast alive.

on august 20th, al jazeera america introduced

>> i don't know where to begin. i'm seeing strange things before my eyes. i can see the object itself doesn't look very much like a meteor, at least no the meteors i've seen. it looks like a huge cylinder. >> you heard a clip from the

orson wells scaring millions. >> the show was broadcast across america without commercial interruption. it mixed music with fake news bulletins that suggested a martian invasion of the country was underway. we sat in with a revival of the broadcast in a small new jersey town where the play was set. >> good evening, we bring you the music of the orchestra. >> 75 years after the cbs radio production fooled millions of americans into thinking a martian in vase was underway, they're at it again in groves mills. >> we interrupt our program to bring you a special bulletin. >> actor other son we also.

>> it was 1938, war brewing in europe, the u.s. was on edge. what would you think if you heard this coming out of your radio? >> a bulletin is handed me, martian cylinders are falling all over the country. there's one outside of buffalo, one in chicago, st. louis. >> this was a different era. you have dad and mom and boy listening to the radio absolutely terrified of the broadcast. wells said it was the equivalent of putting a white sheet on your body, jumping out and saying boo. >> phone lines to the authorities were jammed. >> there were over 2,000 phone calls to the trenton police. people were using party lines back then, as well. it wasn't like today where everybody had cell phones. it was a big deal.

>> this couple runs the coffee shop, which is peppered with memorabilia of the event and host events regularly. they are asked could it happen today in the digital age? >> it could. there's a lot of fear, a lot of terror, a lot of things that scare us. if it was on line, facebook. >> the whole country was scared. >> it's large, large as a bear and glistens like wet leather, but face it, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, it's indescribable. i can hardly force myself to keep looking at it, it's so awful. >> people fell for it before, today, simply revel in it. >> surveys at the time found as many as two thirds of listeners, especially those who tuned in late believed it to be real. years later, orson wells

apologized. he didn't know it was going to be broadcast nationwide. >> it could happen today. you think about twitter, facebook, halloween pranks. >> i listened to the broadcast this morning, i totally would have been one of the listeners that bought it. i would have. >> coming up, in just over an hour, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius will testify before congress. >> nato allies assist'd in the surveillance of world leaders. our countries are involved in espionage against the united states. >> a polio outbreak in syria could spread to a half million children.

>> strong storm system is bringing heavy rain to the middle of the country and the chance for severe weather. i'll have the forecast. >> in the next hour, we'll go deeper into syria's polio outbreak. a unicef will talk about concerns it could spread. >> ecuador is abandoning a unique plan to drill and protect the environment. aljazeera continues. we're back with with you in two and a half minutes.

>> kathleen sebelius on the health care hot seat. all eyes will be on her as she gets set to defend the affordable care act and its problem-plagued website. >> there has not been a mass casualty in the u.s. since 2001. that's not by luck. >> the head of the n.s.a. die i, saying the gathering of intelligence around the world is not only critical, it helps keep americans safe from terrorists. >> a new crisis in sir yes, children testing positive for polio. the latest outbreak could be the tip of iceberg. >> a bus crash in india, police

searching for the company's owners. >> fireworks are expected an hour from now on capitol hill when health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius will appear before a house committee. that committee is looking into problems with the rollout of the affordable care website. she was optimistic in the weeks leading up to the launch. >> we're on track to have the marketplace up and running on october 1 and i'm confident that we will be up and running and on track on october 1. >> she had a change in tone after the site was launched and potential customers kept getting booted off. >> healthcare.gov, the website is far from perfect. it is getting about her every day. it doesn't operate that way now.

it's far from being optimum, and we won't stop until it is. >> since that site launched, she has faced calls to resign from some very high profile republicans, most recently senator lamar alexander from tennessee, but she says she's not going anywhere. >> the majority of people calling for me to resign, i would say are people who i don't work for and who do not want this program to work in the first place. >> we go live to randall pinkton in washington. tuesday, marlin tavenner apologizing for the website. will there be another mea culpa today? >> we expect kathleen sebelius to apologize, but to focus more on the solution, what they are doing to rare it, the technical experts hired to put in the fixes to get rid of the bugs, make sure it doesn't continue to

crash as we know. those experts are saying that they can have the job done by the end of november. we are expecting her to focus on that. she is quoted as saying the system is work, just not as smoothly and consistently as we want. credit kicks would say the system isn't working. we expect explanation from the secretary today. >> she seems to be defending the law saying: >> the website has been a failure in the minds of supporters. last week, a few weeks ago, we heard from the consultant who was hired, the principle

contractor, c.g.i., saying their part of the work was done, that it was fine and they are blaming h.h.s. for its failure to conduct tests in advance of the rollout. we expect that she will somehow try to explain that problem, but that's a problem that is too apparent and obviously can't go away, because it continues to crash. >> randall, there is no poll light way to put this. some house republicans want her head on a platter. is that going to happen and is she going to fight for her job. >> if you look at how president obama has dealt with situations in the past where some of his cabinet members have been in trouble, he's always stood by them. he's not the kind of president who is likely to throw his closest aids overboard quickly.

we don't expect her to be going anywhere. the president would have the problem of trying to get a new secretary through senate confirmation in the midst of trying to get obamacare off the ground. that's not a likely scenario. >> randall pinkton joining us live from the white house. randall, thank you very much. >> president obama has said that americans with health insurance wouldn't have to change their plans, if they were satisfied with their coverage, but as the affordable care act rolls out, it is becoming apparent that for many americans, that is not the case. if you didn't have a plan, you could see a cancellation in your mailbox. in florida, blue cross and blue shield said 300,000 of their members of affected. in california, blue shield and kaiser will be withdrawing policies for a kind 280,000 customers. in pennsylvania, 40,000

residents in pittsburgh are going to have to get a new policy and 70,000 customers in maryland, washington, d.c. and virginia are now getting cancellation notices from care first blue cross blue shield. in michigan, 146,000 people have have received their cancellation notices because of the affordable care act. >> edward snowden could be getting a ticket out of russia if he's willing to testify about u.s. spying. german politicians want to question the former n.s.a. contractor. that they are looking into reports that the u.s. tapped the chancellors cell phone. some german lawmakers would give him soil lineup if he agrees to be their star witness. >> no apologies from the nation's top spy chief over that surveillance program. the head of the n.s.a. denied reports of widespread phone tapping of foreign citizens. lawmakers are proposing a bill

scaling back on n.s.a.'s pours. we have the latest. >> confident and almost defy a.m., the nation's top spy chiefs made no apologies before the house intelligence committee, vigorously defending the job their agencies do to keep america's allies safe. >> there has not been a mass casualty here in the u.s. bins 2001. that's not by luck. they didn't stop hating us. they didn't say that they were going to just forget this. they continued to try. >> the work of the national security agency is under fire because of revelations by former n.s.a. analyst edward snowden. documents he leaked revealed the n.s.a. has been collecting phone calls and text messages of millions of american citizens. congressman who is the author of the patriot act has a new law to

stop drag net collection of phone calls of american citizens, place stronger restrictions on who is targeted, and appoint a special advocate to protect privacy rights, but director of national intelligence, james clapper and n.s.a. director general keith alexander told the committee the content of phone calls remain secret, in a virtual lock box unless there is a link to possible terrorism and that he says is rare. >> they would only be looked at when we have reasonable suspicion to we had connection to a foreign al-qaeda or related terrorist group and look into that box. in 2012, we had 288 such selectors that we could go and look into that. that's it, of the billions of records, only 288. >> at the hearing, there was relatively little discussion about allegations that the u.s. had spied on america's allies. at the white house, it was still

a hot topic. press secretary jay carney said president obama assured german chancellor there is not and will not be any spying on her, but this was the reaction whe when carney was asked about leaders of france and japan. >> i don't have specifics about conversations the president may or may not have had with foreign leaders. >> the freedom act proposes end in the bulk collection of records if not directly linked to terrorism, clandestine intelligence or suspected foreign agents. >> russian leaders deny that spying on leaders overseas. they are accused of passing out bugged gift bags at last month's g-20 summit. the report which was read out by italian newspapers say they were given phone chargers and u.s.b. drives equipped with spyware.

>> the u.n. arab league envoy meeting with president bashar al assad. poor more, we go live to beirut. this meeting is going to take place. what are they expecting to come out of it. >> the meeting just finished with president bashar al assad. we haven't heard what came out of that, but yesterday, tuesday, we did hear from the syrian foreign minister as he came out from his meeting and he said basically what we've been hearing all along from the syrian government in that if they go to geneva to conference, as it happens, they want it to be a syrian matter. they want the syrians to discuss among syrians the future of the country and the future of bashar al assad himself in that

country. we also heard from the foreign minister that he does not want to see any foreign interference. now that is something we don't know any details about, what he meant exactly, because in essence, the conference if it happens would be an international conference, since the u.s., russia would participate, iran indicated that it would go if invited, even lebanon says it has the right to be in that conference considering the spillover of the syrian con applicant in this country. >> do we know the circumstances surrounding the sacking of the syrian deputy prime minister? >> well, officially, the syrian government said that he was dismissed for two reasons, the first is that he was absent from work without prior permission and the second one, and i think that's really the heart of the matter is that he has activities and meetings without taking permission from the government. what happened is that the deputy

prime minister met with the former u.s. ambassador to what mass discuss, robertford in geneva and held talks there. the syrian government said that that was without their knowledge and permission. within the government, he is considered as an opposition, one that is tolerated opposition or as the syrian government calls it, the patriotic opposition. >> thank you very much for being with us this morning. >> the war in syria is being blamed for an outbreak of polio there, the u.n. confirming 10 children now have the disease. polio hasn't been seen in syria in 14 years. health officials say vaccinations have dropped since that conflict began two years ago. joining us now to break down the vaccination effort is sarah crowe, a spokesperson for unicef. there is always a big concern

when war breaks out, an outbreak of a deadly disease. how concerned are you that things are only going to get worse? >> this is a public health emergency. the war has spilled over to the entire region, and of course, diseases know no borders. what happened in syria could indeed spread. for every one case of polio, the likelihood is there are 200 children infected. this is a race against time to reach the children. we have mound the a massive immunization campaign. our executive director was in damascus talking to government officials and others to get access to areas that we have not been able to get access to up to date. we're talking about half a million children who have not been reached for vaccines. >> it's the worst age for anybody to be sick, because children in effect other children. what are some of the other road blocks to immunization that you

face? >> whenever children are living in these kind of conditions, cramped, unhygienic conditions, overcrowded settlements in refugee camps and on the move, there are more than 1 million children who are refugees right now, right across the region, and indeed spreading into eastern europe and beyond. this is not just a disaster for syria. it is now a crisis for the region and way beyond, it is a global issue. >> disease knows know boundaries, are we talking about concerns about an epidemic that spreads all the way across the middle east? >> it's important to remember it's not just polio, was, because even though we see this as an open wound, it's critical that we reach children with all the other vaccines, as well, measles, which is a major killer of children, muchs and radio bell la and the in tablets. we're seeing huge numbers of

worrying cases of malnutrition, in hospitals, and clinics. this is effectively a breakdown of the health system, and this is as a result of conflicts and lack of access and neglect. >> people often in countries like the united states say it is happening there, it can't possibly happen here. that's not the case. >> polio anywhere is a threat to children everywhere. what we've seen is a huge drop in the number of cases globally. only three endemic countries left in the world now after india was declared polio free three years ago. now we have afghanistan, pakistan and nigeria. we've seen an outbreak in the horn of africa, but the signs are really encouraging and we need to eradicate this disease. it is a winnable war and we can vaccinate all children, but we need access. >> hopefully, they are listening. thank you very much for being with us this morning.

sarah crowe from unicef. >> folks in the midwest facing the potential for more severe weather today. here's nicole mitchell. >> we've seen some of those strong storms and the rain that that has brought. this is going to be a problem for us. this is the broad picture. we have a system moving out of the rockies into the midwest, large cloud shield, but a lot of rain with that. we were watching that yesterday at this hour, if you remember, pretty much most of missouri covered with that rain and it's going to be more today. the spotty activity that you see will continue to fire up as the day progresses, and we already have more of that persistent rain, northeast the accident starting to move into arkansas. some of these areas, like missouri i was talking about, pretty consistently two and three inches with isolated totals even higher. that same corridor missouri to texas today looking for another consistent two inches with isolated spot higher. the ground is already saturated,

making the flood concerns, the areas in green here because of the saturated grounds, more rain on the way. kansas through texas today with the best chance for strong storms, all of this is on the move tomorrow, so not only a wet corridor, but the chance for storms from the ohio river valley to the gulf coast. that's what we're watching as the system progresses into thursday. back to you. >> a deadly bus crash in india leaves dozens dead. the role that road conditions may have played in the accident. >> afghan officials now sat down to meet with former taliban leaders, the goals they hope to accomplish with their talks. >> there has been a surprising new twist in the trial of the captain of the doomed italian cruise ship involving this woman, who says she was his lover. >> a global wine shortage could be at hand.

>> afghan officials are going to travel to pakistan to meet with

the taliban's former second in command. the break through coming during a summit in london with leaders of pakistan, afghanistan and the u.k. malabaladar is seen as a key figure in pushing the talks forward. he was freed last month, but is reportedly under house arrest. >> at least 40 people are dead after an accident in india, a bus crashing and exploding in flames. the accident involved a private bus on a national highway. why the roads in india are so dangerous. >> police confirmed to us that the driver and the bus cleaner are among the seven who survived the crash. the driver himself has toed police that he was trying to overtake another vehicle in the early hours when he hit an obstruction, which hit the fuel tank and caused the bus to burst into flames. one of the local media outlets is reporting that the bus, a private vehicle, had an automatic locking system, which may have trapped in several

passengers. a full investigation is currently underway. one of the reasons we keep having all these bus crashes in india is because of the lack of knowledge of safety standards, and the poor infra structure in the country. many happen in rural areas, so they are far away to get help and road conditions are full of potholes, obstructions and sometimes paved roads can give way to gravel suddenly, which is why these accidents keep happening. >> india has the deadliest roads in the world. more than 110,000 people are killed every year in road accidents across india. >> there has been a surprising revelation at the trial of the captain of the costa concordia, a dancer testifying that she had a reman particular relationship with the captain, and was with him the night the cruise liner crashed off the coast, killing 32 people. there has been speculation that she may have distracted him from

his duties. that captain faces up to 20 years in prison. >> once again, the united nations is condemning that five decades old embargo against cuba. 188 countries in the general assembly denouncing the sanctions in a symbolic vote. the u.s. started that back in 1960 after fidel castro nationalized u.s. owned properties there. the island nation has been cost more than $1 trillion. the u.n. takes this vote every year and has done so for years. >> investors hope they like what facebook has to say. we have the latest business headlines. >> the big question is how much money is facebook bringing in? yes, the social media giant releases its quarterly financial report after the close of trading today. the last time facebook came out with earnings, the stock took off, because the company showed its business model could

actually make a lot of money. analysts again will be looking at what kind of revenue facebook can make selling ads, especially on mobile devices, the majority of its users can be using mobile devices to update status. the listing price is now at $49 a share. >> the federal research is announcing this afternoon what it plans to do. better than bernanke and policy makers have been pumping money into the economy since the financial crash, and today, wall street will be listening to see if and when they will finally begin pulling back, which would lead to higher interest rates. last month, the fed announced no change to its stimulus program. markets rose, because investors realize money would stay cheap. virtually everyone believes the central bank will continue buying $85 billion a month in bonds to keep interest rates down. >> jobs numbers have been coming in soft, even other measures

aren't really taking off. there's no signs the economy is gaining momentum. it's pointing the other direction, the pace of job creation has slowed. the federal reserve wants to see evidence that there's real improvement happening in the economy before they take away the punch bowl. >> stick with aljazeera america for the kind of analysis you can't get anywhere else. at this hour, stock futures actually higher. after the dow and s&p set highs yesterday, investors are energized. 33 record highs have been set this year. overseas markets are higher, hoping the fed keeps stimulating the economy. nikkei, hong kong and shanghai are up. >> general motors ran out of gas

last quarter, its profit falling 53% compared with a year ago. it blames an $800 million charge to buy stock for union health employees. sales in europe softened. >> apparently, there's not enough wine in the world. supply isn't high enough to keep up with worldwide demand, saying the industry is short by 300 million cases this year. bad weather in france and argentina badly hurt production. >> aside from yourself, who is drinking all of this wine? >> as you can imagine, the french are the number one consumers, but apparently americans drink about one out of nine glasses that are searched on the planet and the chinese have doubled their consumption in the past five years. >> are we going to pay more? >> some analysts predict slight increases. there are much cheaper brands that you can switch to if your

favorite high priced brand haven't available. >> everybody will be talking about this story. thank you very much for being with us this morning. >> ecuador abandoning a unique anti oil drilling plant. environmentalists had hoped to save a beloved national park from destruction. they were asked to be paid for not 257ing that land. fundraising fell short and initiative dropped. we have more. >> there's a saying among tribes of the amazon, the jungle will play the law, but the most diverse area of the planet sits over a large deposit of oil. a few weeks ago, the government gave a green light for oil drilling in the basin, in the heart of the amazon. indigenous leaders devastated. >> for us, it is our supermarket. this is where we find our food. the jungle is our pharmacy and we find all our medicine here.

with the pollution, all is gone. >> he's referring to the pollution caused by drilling in the outskirts of the reserve. all large animals are gone, he said. ecuador's president said texaco caused serious damage in the amazon. his answer, for the world to pay ecuador $350 million a year to leave it untouched. his plan failed. the governments now defend oil drilling. it's for the greater good, the government ad says. the media campaign comparing drilling to the short lived pain of babies getting a vaccine. >> they're not only against oil exploration in the amazon, but against everything it brings, contractors, roads, heavy traffic, and this is somehow

already happening here, a zone that has tropical rain forests and where heavy drilling has been going on for the past decade. >> the marches to the capitol have already started. communities from the amazon trekked for five days to demand an audience. >> we don't want oil companies. our message to them is you will harm us. leave us alone. >> many here want a referendum on oil drilling. >> as a woman, i want to defend our territory for the future of our children, so they can continue to live in harmony with the jungle. >> the indigenous movement has played a role in toppling three ecuadorian presidents during the past decade. now they have a warning for this president, let oil companies into the jungle, and he will pay a heavy price. so will the planet.

aljazeera, ecuadorian amazon. >> the ecuador president wanted $4 billion in contributions to save the area from drilling, but only $13 million was raise said. the president said scrapping the program was one of the hardest decisions that he ever had to make. >> still ahead, health care back lash, the obama administration facing criticism over its health care allow, just as thousands say they are losing their current plans. >> getting more educational bang for your buck. do those college rankings really help finding the best college for your budget? >> coming up in sports, lebron james and the miami heat unveiled another championship banner. we'll have the heights in just a bit.

conversation in a live town-hall event. sex crimes on campus, a special week of coverage and live town-hall on america tonight nine eastern. only on al jazeera america.

(vo) friday night ... >> does the nsa collect any type of data on millions of americans? >> no sir. (vo) fault lines investigates what it's like to live under the watchful eye of the nsa. >> they know everything that you do, everything that you think, everything that you fear. they know how to manipulate and control you. the state has all the power. >> we have done more to destroy our way of life than the terrorists could ever have done.

>> welcome back to aljazeera america. i'm del walters. in just about a half hour, the health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius is going to testify before the house on capitol hill. kathleen sebelius will be asked to explain the failures of the federal health insurance website. many of the republican panel members are already saying that she should get the ax, she should be fired. we tell you what we should expect when she faces the wrath of congress. >> for the first time. >> i want to apologize to you that the website has not worked as well as it should. >> a member of the obama administration apologized to americans for the obamacare website that has been plagued by problems since it launched last month. testifying before a house committee tuesday, marlin tavenner, the head of medicare and medicaid did not give many reasons for website issues. she did not give specific numbers and how many people have actually signed up for insurance. those facts and figures are expected to cull in another

hearing, when her boss, health secretary so i guess testifies this morning. that could get heated. some had republicans have been calling for her to be fired over the website woes. >> i don't think anybody would deny this fact on either side of the political aisle, these past 29 days have been nothing short of a disaster. >> as republicans attack the problem-plagued website as representative of larger troubles with the affordable care act. >> the problem with obamacare isn't just the website, it's the whole law. >> democrats fiercely defend the law and the site. >> everybody needs to chill out because it is going to work. >> we are working around the clock to deliver the shopping experience that you deserve. >> according to prepared testimony, secretary sebelius says:

>> she is expected to blame the website's contractors, saying they have not met expect is as. last week in another congressional hearing, the lead contractors on the site said they only had two weeks in september to do end to end testing of the system, something they say should of taken months. the white house is still promisessing a quick fix. >> by the end of november, the experience on the site will be smooth for the vast majority of users. >> the obama administration points out there are other ways to sign up, through call centers, paper applications and through assistance in every state. >> president obama is also talking health care in boston today, hoping to draw parallels to the landmark massachusetts health care law that also had a pretty slow rollout. the president's message today, be patient. joining us now to discuss the recent health care revelations is wendell potter, the former vice president of operations for

cigna insurance. he is the author about corporate is killing health care. he joins us now from burbank. you've written that this was a train wreck that was waiting to happen and that during your time at cigna they had a similar experience on a smaller scale. tell us what happened there. >> when you're attempting something this significant, you can anticipate problems. yes, at cigna several years ago, the company was migrating its membership base from old legacy computer systems to the new platform, and it took months in planning and there were glitches in the rollout. it's just almost inevitable. the administration should have known and prepared for these glitches. it's not something that cannot be prepared, but they should have been prepared for this in terms of how to communicate with the american public about what to expect and to give the public

guidance as to what to do while the problems are being fixed. >> we've heard an awful lot from politicians, from policy makers. you're the first industry insider to be on our program. does the insurance industry want what is frequently referred to as obamacare. >> it depends on what company you're talking about. it's not an industry that speaks with one voice anymore. there are many health insurance companies that will benefit and do a good job under obamacare. some of the biggest ones like the ones i used to work for, cigna, aetna and united, may not fare to well and not eager for it to be a success. the blue cross plans around the country, and some of the smaller non-profit plans should thrive. i think it will be transformative in a good way for the health insurance industry,

and also for consumers. we will see, i think frankly a return to the way that insurance should be sold or was sold initially, and we're returning to a time when we're going to be having a system that is more equitable and i think that's a good thing. >> -- the bugs and glitches and everything else that seems to be in the headlines, americans should stick it out? >> there's no doubt about it. we've got a stick this out, because one of the things that we're losing sight of, it's understandable, but with all the headlines, losing sight of the fact that this law will do a lot of good things for many families, already is. we need to think about why we had to have reform in the first place. we have 50 million americans who don't have insurance, 30 million others who are underinsured, and many people can't buy insurance at any price because of practices of the insurance industry. there's a lot this law does that's very good. we've just got to weather this

storm, the glitches and health care in the exchanges. >> what about the millions who say that the president simply lied to them. they say that he said if you have a policy, you like your policy, you'll be able to keep your policy and now they're finding out they can't because of that fine print. what should they do? >> the president did qualify that. when i first heard it in 2009, i thought, you know, he should never have said that, because it's not under his control to tell insurance companies what they can or cannot do in many cases when it comes to -- what we have to keep in mind, the insurance industry for years has been selling inadequate plans. a lot of people are in plans that are inadequate. they're junk insurance and people are in those plans often and don't realize it until it's too late. what people need to know is that what they will be buying is coverage that has greater value

and most americans will be able to get tax credits and subsidies to help pay premiums. they'll be getting better coverage for less cost. >> thank you very much for being with us this morning. he writes a column at the center for public integrity. he joined us this morning live from burbank, out there very early. thank you very much. >> we'll have live coverage of kathleen sebelius's appearance before congress this morning. our coverage begins at 9:00 eastern time. >> today is the day for millions of americans, it's the day they're going to find out how much extra they will see in their social security checks next year. the cost of living adjustment, known as cola is based on an inflation rate that will be released later today. the early numbers suggest that the nation's 58 million social security recipients could see the smallest increase since the 1970's. social security pays the average retired worker with $1,270 a month. a 1.5% raise would amount to $19

or three cups of coffee. >> while college costs spiral far more than the inflation rate, parents and students are trying to find the best bang for their buck. do the surveys help or hurt? we take a closer look. >> trish that, the daughter of immigrants from india hopes to become a doctor. she is a premed major who lives at home. her tuition is just under $6,000 a year, which is all her family can afford. the president of queens college says it provides large amounts of student aid, so students don't to have pick up a job to pay their tuition. >> we're getting students who are from very modest means, first in their family to go to college, maybe first in this country. without us, they wouldn't be able to transcend their particular situation and move up. >> financial planner bob trait said cost has everything to do with how families pick schools. >> from working class families,

selectedding the colleges based on the affordability, based on the geographical convenience of their son or daughter commuting as opposed to living on campus. >> with tuition on the rise, many families are looking at where they can get the most bang for the buck, the washington monthly has produced one of many lists that ranks colleges on just that, and queens college is number two. their to do looked at more than 1500 colleges. queens ranked as one of the best in helping low income students get marketable degrees at affordable prices. >> the rankings took into account scholarships as well as effectiveness in encouraging students to give back to their country. measuring the benefit of college has many results depending who you ask. other lists have different criteria and the results aren't always as positive. >> the salary research firm pay scale looks at a school's return on investment, ranking a college's worst on the value of

its alumni earnings and annual income. while the tuition might be higher, so are the salaries of its graduates. tuition and student fees at harvey college in california is nine times that of queens, yet it ranks number one, while queens falls to 338. >> as far as these lists are concerned, i believe that the students are not using them in the decision-making process. i believe that the lists and the rankings serve as an affirmation that the student has made the correct decision, that they'll be proud of the college they attend. >> he said it's a way for schools to tout their names. >> each of these rankings can contribute in many ways to what a good education is. given that we live in the borough of queens, we want that. >> school rankings might not be the most accurate tools, but students and parents look at

them. aljazeera, flushing, new york. >> most americans still believe the college degree is important but want to pay less for that education. >> parts of the west are dealing with more snowfall, more in the west on top of what they already have. for more on that, we turn to nicole mitchell. >> in so many cases, this is beneficial, because the ski resorts are trying to open by the thanksgiving holiday. this is a look at sugar bowl, which is reporting just in the last 24 hours, some places as much as eight inches. i think they always report the deepest snow they can find to make the skiers start alleviating for the season ahead. a lot of moisture has moved interior, so vale today getting snow. that is expected to open in a couple weeks. there's always a good side to this. that same area, wyoming into colorado, watch for winds star

to crank up, wyoming gusting in the 40-50-mile per hour range. most of the energy moved to the midsection of the country where we'll see a chance for heavy rain from the great lakes all the way down into texas. i'm actually flying through houston today on my way to military duty for the next couple days. we might be delayed together at the airport. there's a chance for storms kansas into texas as this kind of fires up into the afternoon hours. that spreads more to the east and into the day tomorrow. back to you. >> ross shimabuku is here with sports. i'm already getting ready for the nba slam dunk, warming up. >> got to love it. time to hoop it up nba style. the party was in south beach as another banner was have yo unve. they got their championship rings, blind out with 10-carats of diamonds. derrick rose, who missed all of last season with a torn a.c.l.

explosive as ever, but committed five turnovers. lebron james baptizes tony snell. the king racked up 17 points, one of seven miami players to score in double figures. the heat would win it 107-95. howard will be blasting off in houston tonight as the rockets open up their season against the bobcats. we have more on superman and his new routine. >> the houston rockets are looking for a time to make a run toward their first nba title in almost 20 years. the time is now. >> we all have the same goal, which is just to win a championship. we understand it's not going to be easy. there's a lot of great teams in the west, but we have an opportunity to do something special. >> with the rockets landing

dwight howard and a roster already stacked with talent like harden, one of the best guards in the league, plus chandler parsons and jeremy lin, the rockets believe they have what it takes. >> i think we have a chance to win it all, and i don't think we're a favorite, but i think we definitely have a chance, and i think when you think of the favorites, you have your san antonio, miami, and you've got really good teams that have been there. we haven't been there. we just got put together. we're going to try to make some noise. >> as the rockets look to make some noise, they're looking to make sure their newly renovated team wins. >> we all have to sacrifice in order to be a championship team, whether that's advantage points or whatever that may be, we have to sacrifice something. i think everybody's onboard with that. >> the rockets still have yet to play a game, leaving houston with high hopes but unclear how

the season will play out. >> we're not sure, but have to figure it out. that's kind of our job. i am envisioning we can attack from a lot of different angles. teams have to pick their poison. >> did you hear about ticket prices for game six of the world series no they average $2,000 a pop. the demand is high. the last time they clinched at home, woodrow wilson was our president, the pop up toaster was in vented and date savings went into effect for the very first time, don't forget, this sunday fall back. we have more from fenway. >> no one under the age of 95 has seen the scene that could unfold here at boston's fenway park wednesday night. in game six, the red sox have a chance to clinch a world series title here at fenway park for the first time since 1918, in a

game that featured a free new york yankees babe ruth. certainly the red sox have advantage. number one, they're playing at home. they have a 53-28 record here at fenway park during the regular season, best in the american league, and i'm getting a reinforcement back in the lineup. first baseman mike napoli. >> that is into left center field, down to the wall, one run scores. here comes pedroia. here comes ortiz. 3-0 boston in the first. >> was, what st. louis has going for them in 22-year-old pitcher michael wacha, 4-0 in the postseason with an e.r.a. of 1.00. the cardinals are 3-0 when wacha pitches after a loss. certainly he has been a stopper for the cardinals. they certainly hope he can reproduce that kind of effort on wednesday night in game six of the 2013 world series.

from boston, john henry smith, aljazeera. >> of course, boston won the world series in 2004 and 2007, but both championships came on the road. they'll have a chance tonight in game six. >> 1918 was a very good year indeed. i remember it well. [ laughter ] >> ross, thanks. >> the bat toll fit in in europe, how the people there are fighting to bring an end to segregation and isolation in italy. >> a major engineering accomplishment as a new tunnel opens after nearly a decade of work. how it's making life easier. together unexpected voices closest to the story, invite hard-hitting debate and desenting views and always explore issues relevant to you.

>> audiences are intelligent and they know that their

>> the case of that little girl named maria found living in a greek roma camp has brought the community to life again. in italy, the gypsy nationality is at the center of a debate about basic human rights. we have the story of one family searching for a better life. >> this woman likes to welcome guests with coffee that she is

forced to serve it outdoors. in the trailer she calls home, there is barely space for her chirp. this is where she lives with her husband and four children, hopes to be relocated to a social housing property are quickly fading away. >> they say i'm roma and social housing is for italians, but i'm a citizen, too, it's not my fault i was born in a camp and i have a right to a decent home. >> she is one of more than 4,000 members of the roma community who live in overcrowded camps infested by rats. with a sewage system clogging and overflowing, illness is arrive with hepatitis a and scabies among children. the supermarket is two kilometers away. this camp was built to house 600 people, but twice as many live

here in very poor conditions. this was meant to be a temporary accommodation, but for most, this is now home. >> a report by amnesty international published wednesday said that in italy, there is a two track social housing system which discriminates roma people. >> italy has been condemned several times in the last over 10 years by most human rights council of europe, the u.n., and it keeps doing it. i think there has been no political will to address the demands of roma. >> the city counselor in charge of social policies in rome wants to end segregation through integration. >> we need to learn to live together and go beyond the strategy of camps. it is obsolete. they want stability. >> while the woman and her family await better living

conditions, this community will have to keep calling this camp their home. aljazeera, rome. >> amnesty international says as many as 4,000 roma live in those camps. >> four french hostages are free after three years of captivity in ni g.e. er. they are kidnapped by gunmen linked to al-qaeda. they did not pay ransom for launch a military assault. it is still unclear why they were released. >> a tunnel connecting europe and asia, a breakthrough once dreamed of for centuries, thousands garbage in istanbul as turkey opened a four and a half billion dollars railway link. it is held as a marvel of modern engineering. aljazeera has more. >> the project is 150-year-old dream that became a reality.

a turk issue-japanese consortium took on the task of anchoring the tunnel to the river bed. work started in 2004, but stopped many times because of archaeological findings. the no network is more than 60 kilometers with a capacity of more than 1 million passengers a day. the most important part of this project is the undersea tunnel. it connects asia where i am with europe. the ride between the two stations on the two sides is only four minutes. >> the tunnel runs under the straight that connects the black sea and divides istanbul and europe. the tunnel is 16.6 kilometers long, including a underwater stretch of 1.4 kilometers. the tunnel cost more than

$4 billion to built. the turk issue government says that's money well spent. >> it is not only joining two continents, it is making the dreams of more than 50 years come true. it is linking history with with today and linking today with the future. it is giving confidence to this nation. it is giving the nation faith. it shows us what we can do when we really believe in ourselves. >> driving across istanbul is never easy, and crossing the iconic istanbul bridge sometimes takes hours. >> our commute to the other side will be easier, especially in the morning rush hour. >> it will relieve the traffic only by 5%. >> there are 14 million people living in istanbul. the government hopes the new train will ease traffic congestion by 20%. tuesday is also the 90t

90th anniversary for the founding of the turk issue group. the government called it a day of unity, national pride and celebration. once the party is over, the people of istanbul just hope getting around will be a little easier. aljazeera, istanbul. >> as omar stated, the tunnel facing several delays due to archeological finds, including the largest fleet of mid evil ships discovered. stay tuned for our special coverage of the testimony of health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius. that coverage begins in just two and a half minutes. you can check us out 24 hours a day an aljazeera.com.

spokesperson, to the streets. >> thousands of riot police deployed across the capitol. (vo) we put all of our global resources behind every story. >> it is a scene of utter devastation. (vo) and follow it no matter where it leads, all the way to you. al jazeera america. take a new look at news.

what happens when social media uncovers unheard, fascinating news stories? >> they share it on the stream. >> social media isn't an after-thought, it drives discussion across america. >> al jazeera america's social media community, on tv and online. >> this is your outlet for those conversations. >> post, upload and interact. >> every night share undiscovered stories.

>> kathleen sebelius on the health care hot seat, all eyes will be on the secretary of health and human service as she gets set to defend the affordable care act and it's problem-plagued website. she is testifying this morning before congress. good morning, and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. our special coverage starts right now. health and human services secretary, kathleen sebelius set to testify before the congressional hearing any moment now. she is being asked to explain the failures of the website and she will likely have to defend the